Health, Sports, and Authoritarianism in Mexico’s Educational Project, 1930–1940

Abstract

The objective of this article is to illustrate the changes in the project of physical education and sports in Mexico as it was beginning a process of reconstruction after a revolutionary movement that affected principally rural and peasant communities. The Department of Education incorporated into this project the teaching of sports of Anglo-Saxon origin like track and field while also rescuing dance and folklore to preserve the meaning of being Mexican. That teaching programme was implemented by the Cultural Missions that visited rural communities where the educational authorities perceived backwardness and monotony. The teachers were essential in that project because they became leaders of those rural communities, entrusted with the task of transmitting a proposal for health and physical exercise in which children and adults would spend more time learning outside the classroom, including during sports festivals. In the early years, a link was proposed between the school and the rural community. In contrast, the decade of 1930–1940 saw the emphasis shift to the formation of peasant organizations and labour unions as the ‘body of the nation’ was transformed in response to an authoritarian decision by the Party that transformed physical activity and sports into spectacles presented outside the school.